An assessment of the quality and microbiological quality of domestic water supply in Peri-Urban areas of Lusaka District

Abstract

Introduction: Access to safe and clean water is important as a health and development issue at regional, national and local levels (World Health Organization, 2006). Throughout human history, the major health problems that humans have faced are concerned with community life such as control of transmissible diseases, and the provision of safe and clean water in sufficient supply (Rosen, 1993). The Romans, for instance, in spite of the remarkable achievement in public health engineering still had to cope with the problem of endemic and epidemic water-borne diseases such as typhoid fever and dysentery (Rosen, 1993).Objectives of study: The main objective of the study was to determine the quantity and microbiological quality of household domestic water supply in peri-urban areas of Lusaka.Methods and Materials: This was a cross-sectional analytical study. The sampling strategies used in drawing the sample population was by first establishing clusters according to constituencies and then followed by simple random sampling for the households. Lusaka has seven constituencies from which one peri urban area was selected giving a total of seven peri-urban areas to be included in the study. The peri urban areas randomly selected were Kanyama from Kanyama Constituency, Kalikiliki from Munali Constituency, Garden from Mandevu Constituency, Bauleni from Lusaka Central Constituency, Chunga from Matero Constituency, Jack from Kabwata Constituency, and Misisi from Chawama Constituency. From the selected areas, a number of households were randomly picked for inclusion in the study. Data in this study was collected using a structured questionnaire for the households and an interview guide for interviews with the Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company. Fourteen water samples were collected from each of the peri-urban areas and submitted to University of Zambia, School of Engineering, for bacteriological analysis. The analysis included feacal coliform, and total coliform. The water samples were collected from every second household interviewed.